"Pickles! Pickles and jelly beans!" the Grunt yelled, looking around for its dropped plasma pistol.

"What… the… hell?" Master Chief asked himself, watching the Grunt in ultimate disbelief.

"Pickles and jelly beans! Pickles and jelly beans!" The Grunt yelled again, still searching for the weapon.

Hold on a minute, Master Chief, Cortana started, There seems to be a malfunction in your armor's translation matrices. Attempting to repair the error now…

"You'd better hurry that up," Master Chief Started, "I'd like to know what this worthless thing is babbling about."

"Pickles and fear!" The Grunt yelled, finally finding its weapon. But it was too late—Master Chief had already unloaded an entire clip of ammunition into the defenseless thing by the time it reached the weapon.

"Don't they understand just how annoying they are?" Master Chief asked; obviously annoyed by the time he'd just wasted, "Cortana, where is the nearest ventral hatch?"

I'm marking it off on your heads-up. All you've gotta do is just follow that, and we should make it off just fine.

With that, Master Chief took off running in the direction of the nav point that was flashing… somewhat violently… on his HUD.

"In a hurry?" Master Chief asked Cortana, with a smirk spread on his face.

Let's just say, Cortana started, That I really don't like these Covenant dropships… Too many unknowns.

Right as she finished her sentence, Master Chief bumped right into a Grunt that had been sleeping in the middle of a corridor.

"Look! More enemies! Here!" the Grunt yelled, getting the attention of two plasma-sabre-wielding Elite that had been inspecting cargo containers that were being transported from the surface of HALO back to the Truth and Reconciliation

That… can't be good, Cortana told Master Chief, as the Grunt ran to join its taller counterparts.

"Hmmmmmmmmmm… I guess I probably should've reloaded before we left that Grunt back there," Master Chief said to Cortana, looking at the flashing display on his HUD:

MA5B Assault Rifle: Ammunition Depleted.

Plasma Rifle: 75% Charge

Over-Shield: 12% Charge

Active Camouflage: Inactive [Insufficient Energy]

NAV Point: 67M

"Hello there, gentlemen," Master Chief started, "And how would you be today?" He asked, reaching for the plasma rifle that he had holstered on his back. As the Grunt started to reply, one of the Elite grabbed it and threw it backward, squealing in pain.

Ouch, Cortana started, I'd hate to be part of this… "family."

The Elite were quickly closing in on Master Chief, and their plasma sabres were glowing violently. Without another thought, Master Chief pulled the plasma rifle from its holster and began firing upon the lead Elite. Luckily, the plasma rifle had an extremely helpful side effect: it stunned the targets for each shot fired. This gave Master Chief time to pull out one of the plasma grenades that he'd taken from the Grunt only minutes before.

As he maintained the fire on the Elite with the plasma rifle, he began fingering in the activation sequence to activate the grenade. He finished, and found the best target: the Grunt. It had just gotten back to its feet when Master Chief chucked the grenade at it.

"Aaaaaaaah! Get it off! Get if off!" the Grunt screamed, grabbing onto the leg of one of the Elite.

"Noooooooooooooooooo!" the Elite yelled, trying to pry the Grunt off of its leg, but to no avail.

Master Chief ducked behind one of the cargo containers just in time to hear the explosion, and see the two Elite go flying over-head and smash into a bulkhead.

Now that, Cortana started, Was one hell of a fireworks display.

Master Chief nodded, and then picked himself up. He went over to one of the cargo containers and pried it open. Inside were energy cells—a LOT of energy cells. He decided to take this opportunity to reequip himself. He replaced the energy cells in the plasma rifle and went to replace the energy cell in his primary MJOLNIR power core.

Wait! Cortana yelled, You can't just do that! Covenant energy cells may not be compatible with the MJOLNIR structure!

"Well," Master Chief started, "That's a risk that I'm more than willing to take."

With that, he yanked the energy cell from the MJOLNIR armor, and for the first time since he'd been given the MJOLNIR armor, he felt weak. Without the energy cell to power the suit, he was limited to his basic human strengths—which were nothing to scoff at. He remembered quite well the Orbital Drop Shock-Trooper that he'd killed back in the boxing ring—and that was no small feat for anyone… period.

"Well," he started, "Here goes nothing."

He shoved the Covenant energy cell into the power core and all at once, the MJOLNIR armor seemed to come alive all on its own.

You see? Something is wrong, Cortana started, The suit is at least ten times more sensitive to your motion that it ever has been before.

"That's a minor problem in the long run," Master Chief replied, looking back at his HUD.

MA5B Assault Rifle: Ammunition Restocked.

Plasma Rifle: 100% Charge

Over-Shield: 100% Charge

Active Camouflage: Inactive [Activate Y/N?]

NAV Point: 67M

"Cortana," Master Chief started, "Activate the active camouflage. I don't want anymore… hassle getting off this crate."

Acknowledged, Cortana answered, Active camouflage active. I estimate that it'll deplete its charge in forty-five minutes.

"That's more time than I'll need. Thanks."

With that, he sped toward the NAV point. He watched as his HUD counted down to the final destination: 65M, 56M, 40M, 30M, 24M, 15M, 5M…

"Almost there," Master Chief started, "Almost…"

Suddenly, the hatch began to seal, and he had to do something fast. So, with no other option in sight, he jumped through, and gashed a bit of the armor on a jagged edge. But he'd made it out of the ship, just in time to see it lifting back into the air to head back to the Truth and Reconciliation.

WARNING: Active camouflage failure—energy cell damaged.

"Timing is everything, and I've just proven that." Master Chief said to Cortana.

I wouldn't be too sure of that, Master Chief, Cortana started, Look.

As he looked at his motion tracker, he saw that there were two enormous anomalies, approximately two meters from his position. Hunters.

He lifted his head to look at the Hunters, and had a face full of fuel-rod cannon as he did so. They closed in on him, and raised their shields to charge—they were going to smash him flat. They began to charge. Faster and faster, until eventually, they hit their target—or did they? Master Chief had managed to maneuver around behind them. Before they could turn for another run, and without so much as another thought, his hands shot out and snapped the Hunters' spines, killing them instantaneously.

That was amazing! Cortana yelled, How the hell did you do that?

"I…" Master Chief started, "Don't know."

He looked down at his hands—they were trembling profusely. He had no idea what the hell was going on, but he had a hunch that it had something to do with the Covenant energy cell. Perhaps it wasn't a good idea to tamper with alien technology in this specific situation.

"Echo 419," he started, "This is Master Chief, I'm in need of evac at my present location."

"Roger that, MC," a voice crackled over the commlink, "We're coming in for ya. Just hang tight."

"Acknowledged," Master Chief replied, "Master Chief over and out."